This report maps the activities of ten leading Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Korea, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Africa and the United States. In particular, it looks at how these SAIs assess key stages of the policy cycle as well as resulting policies and programmes. SAIs have untapped potential to go beyond their traditional oversight role and contribute evidence for more informed policy-making. The report provides examples and case studies of SAIs’ activities that consider and support the integration of international good practices into policy and programme formulation, implementation and evaluation. It provides guidance for SAIs seeking to engage in oversight, insight and foresight, taking into account the SAI’s internal strategy as well as policy challenges and actors in the external environment.

This is the perfect moment to launch a broader and more inclusive discussion on the role Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) have in promoting good governance. In the paper Integrating Governance in the Post-2015 Development Framework, the United Nations highlights the vital link between good governance and development. This concern has led to the inclusion of Goal 16 – commonly referred to as the governance goal – amongst the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approved in September 2015. This goal establishes the need to “promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels”.